踏着梵高的足跡遊歐洲 Touring Europe in the Footsteps of van Gogh

A few months ago, I stood at the corner of a busy roundabout called Place LamArtine, across from the Roman gates leading into Arles in southern France, on a spot that was pivotal in the life of Vincent van Gogh. Behind me was the Rhone River, where he painted sparkling reflections from the quay on one particularly memorable starry night. Before me was a run-down commercial strip leading toward vast fields of the sunflowers he painted time and again.

幾個月前，我站在人來人往的拉馬丁廣場的拐角，馬路對面是進入法國南部阿爾勒的古羅馬門。這個地方對文森特·梵高(Vincent van Gogh)的一生都至關重要。我身後是羅納河，一個繁星滿天的夜晚，梵高曾在這裏的碼頭畫下了河中閃爍的倒影。在我面前是一條破敗的商業街，通向大片大片的向日葵花海，而它們曾一次次地出現在梵高的畫作中。

It was where Vincent van Gogh’s Yellow House once stood, the sun-drenched Proven home that was the subject of his 1888 oil painting, where he took a period of “enforced rest” as he put it, in a pale violet-walled “Bedroom” he depicted in oil paintings three times that year.

這裏曾經矗立着梵高的黃房子，那個灑滿陽光的普羅旺斯住宅是他1888年的油畫的主角。用梵高自己的話來說，他曾在裏面度過了一段“集中休憩”的時光，“臥室”的牆壁是淡紫色的，那一年曾三次出現在他的油畫中。

The little house contained legends: It was where one of the world’s most famous artists pushed his painting technique to its peak with works such as “Café Terrace at Night,” “Sunflowers” and “The Sower.” And it was where his personal life turned a dramatic and tragic corner. Here, van Gogh had a tumultuous fight with his friend, Paul Gauguin, and sliced a blade through his own ear, before admitting himself to the local mental hospital.

這棟小房子充滿了傳奇色彩：在這裏，世界最負盛名的藝術家之一把自己的繪畫技術推向了巔峯，創作了《夜晚露天咖啡座》、《向日葵》和《播種者》等作品。在這裏，梵高的個人生活出現了戲劇性和悲劇性的轉折。在這裏，他與好友保羅·高更(Paul Gauguin)發生了激烈的爭吵，用刀割掉了自己的耳朵，入住了當地的精神病醫院。

From March to August, I traveled to many of the landmarks of van Gogh’s artistic life, beginning in the Belgian mining town of Mons, where the 27-year-old Dutchman was fired from his job as a missionary working among local coal miners for “undermining the dignity of the priesthood” by opting to live in the same squalid conditions as the miners — and where he instead began to draw. From there, I traveled to his renowned painting locations, Montmartre in Paris and Arles and St. Rémy in Provence, and ultimately to the Parisian suburb of Auvers-sur-Oise, where his life was cut short in his 37th year.

去年3月到8月，我造訪了梵高藝術生涯中的許多重要地點，起點是比利時礦業城市蒙斯。27歲的荷蘭人梵高曾在那裏失去了在當地煤礦公司傳教的工作，原因是他選擇和礦工生活在同樣骯髒的環境裏，“破壞了傳道士的尊嚴”，並開始在畫畫。此後，我來到了他一些知名畫作的誕生地，巴黎的蒙馬特、普羅旺斯的聖雷米和阿爾勒，最後是見證梵高匆匆走完37年人生的瓦茲河畔歐韋。

I was on the trail of the artist during Van Gogh Europe 2015, the year that commemorates the 125th anniversary of his death, observed by cultural events and exhibitions related to van Gogh throughout the Netherlands, Belgium and France. What struck me was that, considering how famous and beloved van Gogh is, there are a number of historical landmarks of his life that have not been preserved, or are neglected. A few spots, however — such as van Gogh’s room at the asylum in St.-Rémy-de-Provence and his hotel room in Auvers-sur-Oise, where he died — have been handsomely renovated to great effect for visitors interested in the artist’s life, and for the local communities, which benefit economically from this form of gentle cultural tourism.

我的梵高之旅正好趕上了2015歐洲梵高年。爲了紀念梵高逝世125週年，荷蘭、比利時和法國舉辦了大量文化活動和與梵高有關的展覽。讓我難以置信的是，雖然梵高享有如此的聲望和愛戴，他生命中好幾處重要地標竟然沒有被保護起來，或者無人問津。不過，有幾個位置——比如梵高在普羅旺斯的聖雷米的精神病院房間，以及他度過最後人生的瓦茲河畔歐韋的酒店房間，都被精心地修葺，迎接着對這位藝術家的人生感興趣的遊客和當地居民。當地人也從這種輕文化旅遊中獲得了豐厚的經濟利益。

Hoping to replicate these strong examples, officials involved in Van Gogh Europe 2015 said their aim was to promote the forgotten sites, to focus attention on the fact that many sites linked to van Gogh were still in need of preservation.

爲了複製這些強大的典範，與2015歐洲梵高年有關的官員稱，他們打算大力宣傳這些被遺忘的角落，讓人們瞭解到許多與梵高有關的遺蹟還需要保護。

“There’s a huge amount of interest worldwide in van Gogh’s paintings, and there’s a great audience for his work in museums,” Frank van den Eijnden, chairman of the Van Gogh Europe Foundation, said in a phone interview. “But generally there is less money for restoration and preservation of van Gogh heritage, mainly the local heritage sites that you can find in France, Belgium and the Netherlands. We needed more attention for all the organizations involved, and especially from the governments that were linked to these locations. We really want van Gogh heritage to be a world heritage in the coming years.”

“世界各地的人們對梵高的畫作都有着強烈的興趣，他在博物館的作品有龐大的擁躉，”梵高歐洲基金會主席弗蘭克·範登艾金登(Frank van den Eijnden)在電話採訪中說。“但總體來說，用於恢復和保護梵高遺產的資金卻不多，主要包括在法國、比利時和荷蘭的遺產。我們需要爲相關機構贏得更多關注，尤其是來自政府機構的關注。我們真心希望梵高的遺產在未來幾年成爲世界性的遺產。”

Mostly, in places where van Gogh lived, there are a number of plaques featuring van Gogh images or words from his letters, in sometimes inscrutable locations. In St.-Rémy-de-Provence, for example, there is a plaque that shows his “Green Wheat Field With Cypress” posted in front of the white stucco wall of a private home.

在梵高居住過的地方，往往會看到梵高的照片或用梵高信件中的文字製作的牌匾，有些會出現在不可思議的位置。例如，在普羅旺斯的聖雷米，一戶私人住宅的白色灰泥牆前就有一塊牌匾，上面印着他的《麥田裏的絲柏樹》。

I wasn’t a van Gogh fan when I embarked on this journey. I moved to the Netherlands nine years ago to do research for a novel on Rembrandt, and my passion lies more in the Dutch old masters. My trouble with van Gogh’s work was that, to me, it had the familiarity of cereal boxes — or, as Andy Warhol might have it, soup cans — copied and reproduced to the point of unseeability. Even when I was standing among the originals, the freshness of his work evaded me. Also, I was weary of what seemed like a triteness in van Gogh’s biography, the tortured-genius-who-never-sold-a-painting-in-his-life.

踏上這次旅程時，我並不是梵高的仰慕者。九年前，我爲了給一本關於倫勃朗的小說做研究搬到了荷蘭，我更偏愛荷蘭的早期繪畫大師。對我來說，梵高作品的問題在於，它熟悉得就像是麥片包裝盒——安迪·沃霍爾可能會說像湯罐頭——如此頻繁地遭到模仿和複製，到了讓人無感的程度。即使站在真跡面前，我也感受不到新鮮。此外，我也厭倦了梵高傳記的陳詞濫調，它們無一例外地把他描述成“一生中從未賣出一幅畫的飽受折磨的天才”。

I often write about van Gogh, because I’m an American art journalist based in Amsterdam, where tourists flock by the millions to the largest trove of his paintings anywhere in the world, the Van Gogh Museum, at the center of Amsterdam’s sprawling Museumplein (museum square).

我經常寫梵高的故事，因爲我是駐阿姆斯特丹的美國藝術記者，而每年會有大量遊客來到全世界最大的梵高作品收藏地——梵高博物館，它就位於阿姆斯特丹龐大的博物館廣場的中央。

But when I learned that van Gogh once sat down in front of one of Rembrandt’s most famous works, “The Jewish Bride,” in the Rijksmuseum (also on Museumplein, next to the Van Gogh Museum) and confided to a friend, “I should be happy to give 10 years of my life if I could go on sitting here in front of this picture for two weeks, with only a crust of dry bread for food,” I began to think about van Gogh and his creative process. That painting, to which Rembrandt applied yellow paint in such thick impasto that it lifts right out into three-dimensionality, was the link for me into the world of van Gogh.

然而當我瞭解到，梵高曾經坐在阿姆斯特丹國家博物館（也在博物館廣場，梵高博物館旁邊）裏面倫勃朗最著名的畫作《猶太新娘》前對一個朋友說，“如果我可以在這幅畫前坐上兩週，我寧願少活10年，哪怕只吃乾麪包充飢都行，”我開始思考梵高和他的創作過程。倫勃朗利用厚重的黃色油彩塑造出立體形象的這幅畫，讓我走進了梵高的世界。

So, that is what brought me, in the heat of July, to the busy intersection in Arles, to see if, in a place that he once inhabited, I could find traces of van Gogh’s soul. But there was no more Yellow House. It was demolished in the 1940s in World War II, I would find out later. In front of me was a white plaque affixed to a pole that stood on the sidewalk, with an image of van Gogh’s painting, all shades of golden hay, fresh butter and sunlight, under a stippled blue sky. There was that impasto yellow again, straight out of Rembrandt’s palette. But no van Gogh.

因此，在7月的炎熱天氣裏，我來到了阿爾勒這個繁忙的交叉路口，想看看在他曾經住過的地方，我是否能找到梵高靈魂的蹤跡。但是黃房子已經不在，後來我才知道，它於上世紀40年代在“二戰”中被摧毀。我面前是一塊白色的牌匾，固定在人行道的柱子上，圖片上是梵高的畫作：各種色調的金黃乾草，新鮮的奶油和陽光，在點彩手法繪出的藍色天空之下。畫上又見濃墨重彩的黃色，如同脫胎於倫勃朗的調色盤。但那不是梵高。

Disappointed, I got back in my car and decided to try to find another van Gogh location on my list: Langlois Bridge, a drawbridge on the outskirts of Arles, which he depicted nine times in 1888. I knew it was still there because it’s now called Pont Van-Gogh.

大失所望的我回到車裏，決定尋找我的單子上另一個與梵高有關的地點：阿爾勒郊外的朗格魯瓦吊橋，他在1888年畫這座橋畫了九次。我知道它仍在那裏，因爲它現在叫做梵高橋。

The Borinage, Belgium

比利時博里納日

I began my journey not in van Gogh’s birthplace, but in the location where van Gogh the artist came to life: in the gritty, drab eastern coal-mining region of Belgium called the Borinage, where van Gogh at age 25 went to minister to the destitute, soot-blackened workers of the coal pits. Because this is where he was rejected from the priesthood and began his artistic career, the city of Mons has declared this the “birthplace of the artist,” with a host of events and an exhibition of his early work at the Museum of Fine Arts, in Mons, which ended in May. (Van Gogh’s birthplace was in Zundert, the Netherlands.)

我此行的起點不是梵高的出生地，而是梵高作爲畫家的誕生地：在比利時東部破舊乏味的煤礦區博里納日，25歲的梵高曾在這裏向煤礦裏貧窮、被煤灰薰得漆黑的工人佈道。因爲他就是在這裏被剝奪了傳道士的身份，開始了藝術家的生涯，蒙斯城已經宣佈這裏是“這位藝術家的誕生地”。蒙斯的美術館舉辦了大量活動和早期作品展，這些活動已經於5月結束（梵高的出生地是荷蘭的津德爾特）。

Van Gogh lived in a few locations in Mons; but he found himself ashamed to be living so well while the people to whom he ministered lived in overcrowded huts, and so he jettisoned his middle-class possessions and moved into smaller and simpler homes. He had started out in a large home up the hill from the local mine, in a red brick house he rented from a landlord named Jean-Baptiste Denis.

梵高在蒙斯的幾個地方居住過，但是他發現自己羞恥於自己過着優越的生活，聽他傳道的人們卻只能生活在擁擠棚屋裏，所以他放棄了中產階級的財產，搬到了更小更簡陋的房子裏。他開始時租住在山上的一所大紅磚房子裏，房東名叫讓-巴蒂斯特·丹尼斯(Jean-Baptiste Denis)。

Everyone I spoke to told me that Maison Denis was only about a 15-minute drive outside Mons, but it took me an hour of driving in circles. It’s not on any map and I got there by chance: I asked directions from a man who happened to be a private van Gogh tour guide in the area. Finally, there it was: At the bitter end of a seemingly endless stretch of ramshackle rowhouses at 221, rue Wilson was a square red brick house with a red tile roof, only a bit larger than the houses that surrounded it.

人們都告訴我，這棟房子位於蒙斯城外，相距只有15分鐘左右車程，但我花了一小時才找到。地圖上沒有這個地方，我能找到全憑運氣：我向一名男子問路，而他剛好是該地區的一名私人梵高路線導遊。最後，我終於看到了它，在威爾森街221號的一排似乎沒有盡頭的破破爛爛的房屋的最遠端，有一棟方方正正的紅磚房子，屋頂鋪着紅瓦，比周圍的房屋稍大一點。

The home was one of the sites that Mr. van den Eijnden of the Van Gogh Europe Foundation had told me was nearly dilapidated, but thanks to fund-raising by a local foundation for Van Gogh Year, renovation of the house was underway. The house was still shuttered and there was a large fence around the property, but I walked to the edge of the backyard, where it bordered a grassy field blanketed in wildflowers that followed all the way down the hill to where I could see the colliery of the Marcasse mine, now closed. The refurbished house has since opened as Maison Van Gogh in Colfontaine, and can be visited on weekends from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

梵高歐洲基金會的範登艾金登告訴我，許多與梵高有關的宅子都已經傾圮，這座房屋是其中之一，多虧了當地的一家基金會爲梵高年進行的籌資，這棟房屋的翻新正在進行當中。房屋仍然關閉，外面圍着巨大的柵欄，我走到了後院的邊上，它毗鄰的草地上開滿野花，從山下一直開到我能看到馬卡斯煤礦的地方。這座煤礦現在已經關閉。房屋經過修繕目前已經重新開放，叫做“科爾方丹的梵高故居”(Maison Van Gogh in Colfontaine)，週末上午10點到下午6點可供參觀。

The attraction’s previously poor state was in sharp contrast to the other landmark van Gogh home in the Borinage, in the village of Cuesmes, Maison Van Gogh, a quaint cottage on a plot of grass at the end of a gravel road where van Gogh lived in 1879 and 1880. This was the location where he regrouped after he was told to abandon his ministry because he had disgraced the church, and where he wrote a letter to his brother, Theo, telling him he would like to try his hand at art. “Try to understand the last word of what the great artists, the serious masters, say in their masterpieces; there will be God in it,” he wrote. “Someone has written or said it in a book, someone in a painting.”

這個景點之前的破敗景象，與另一處位於博爾納日奎姆村的梵高故居形成了鮮明對比。這所別緻的小房子位於一條砂礫路盡頭的草地上，梵高1879年和1880年曾在此居住。正是在這裏，他因爲令教廷蒙羞被要求放棄傳教士的工作，他寫信給弟弟提奧，跟他說自己想要嘗試畫畫。“試着理解偉大的藝術家、嚴肅的大師在作品中表達的最後一句話；那裏面會有上帝，”他寫道。“有人在書裏寫作或表達，有人在畫中。”

Inside this tourist site (which has an admission fee of 4 euros, or about $4.25 at $1.06 to the euro) I was one of only a few visitors, and watched a short biographical video, looked at some of van Gogh’s early, clumsy sketches displayed in a glass vitrine and spent a few minutes among his spartan furnishings — a small wooden writing table, a chair and a wood-burning stove.

在這處故居中（門票4歐元，即大約4.25美元），我是爲數不多的參觀者之一，我觀看了一部梵高的傳記短片，欣賞了玻璃櫥窗裏展示的一些粗糙的早期素描，花了幾分鐘看了看他簡樸的傢俱——一張小木書桌，一把椅子，一個燃燒着木頭的壁爐。

Nuenen, the Netherlands

荷蘭紐南

After he had resolved to devote himself to art, van Gogh moved back to the Netherlands, to live with his parents for two years in the town of Nuenen, where his father was the local minister. This town is proud of its legacy as the place where the itinerant artist remained for the longest stretch of his adult life, and where he painted “The Potato Eaters,” which is now known as his early masterpiece.

決心投身繪畫之後，梵高搬回了荷蘭，與在紐南的父母生活了兩年。他的父親是當地的一名牧師。令這座小城自豪的是，這位四處漂泊的藝術家成年期間在這裏居住了最長時間，而且這裏也是《吃馬鈴薯的人》的創作地。這幅畫目前被認爲是梵高的早期傑作之一。

Nuenen has turned the former town hall into the Vincentre, with a museum largely devoted to van Gogh’s family relationships, a cafe and a gift shop. The center is at the heart of Van Gogh Village Neunen, and the starting point of an outdoor museum, a 22-point walking or biking tour that takes you to some lovely locations where van Gogh painted, and to the Starry Night bike path that lights up with swirls of twinkling stones after dark.

紐南已經把從前的市政廳變成了文森特中心(Vincentre)，包括一座基本上完全用來展示梵高家庭關係的博物館，一家咖啡館和一家禮品商店。這個中心是紐南梵高村的核心，也是一個戶外博物館的起點，可以步行或騎自行車遊覽22處景點，包括梵高畫過的一些美景，《星夜》自行車道上的石頭在天黑之後呈現出螺旋形的燈光。

It is also directly across the street from van Gogh’s family home, a two-story brick house, now a private residence that one can’t visit. Next to it is the home of Margot Begemann, the girl next door, who fell in love with the artist and tried to poison herself with strychnine when her family objected to the affair. Her family home, called Nune Ville, which came on the market recently by chance, has become a focus of efforts by local historic preservationists who would like to turn it too into a van Gogh heritage site.

馬路對面正好是梵高父母的家，一棟兩層的磚房，現在是一處私人住宅，無法參觀。它旁邊是瑪高特·貝格曼(Margot Begemann)的家，這個隔壁女孩愛上了梵高，當她的家庭阻止他們的戀情之後，她曾試圖服用番木鱉鹼自殺。她家的房子名叫 “Nune Ville”，已經成爲當地歷史保護專家的重點保護對象，他們也想把它打造成一處梵高的遺產。

Over last summer, when I visited, most of the rooms of the stately home were given over to contemporary artists who had created room-size installations inspired by van Gogh, in an exhibition called “The Vincent Affair,” which ended in October. Since then, attempts to find investors who could help turn the site into a permanent tourist spot have stalled, Mr. van den Eijnden said.

去年夏天，我來參觀的時候，這個莊重住宅的多數房間都被當代藝術家佔據，他們受到梵高的啓發，創作了一些房間大小的藝術裝置，展覽的名字叫“文森特集市”(The Vincent Affair)，10月份結束。範登艾金登說，此後，尋找投資者把這裏變成長期旅遊景點的努力陷入停滯。

Montmartre, Paris

巴黎蒙馬特

Van Gogh didn’t stay in Nuenen long after the end of the Margot Begemann affair. He moved first to Antwerp, Belgium, and then to Paris, where his brother Theo had a job as an art dealer with the leading art gallery, Goupil & Cie. Van Gogh moved into his brother’s third-floor apartment at 54, rue Lepic in Montmartre, which is a private residence now, and designated only by a marble plaque: “Dans cette maison Vincent van Gogh a vécu chez son frère Théo de 1886 à 1888.” (“In this house Vincent van Gogh lived at his brother Théo’s place from 1886 to 1888.”) And some plastic sunflowers dangle from the window grate.

在與瑪高特·貝格曼的愛情告終之後，梵高沒有在紐南待太長時間。他搬到了比利時的安特衛普，然後又搬到了巴黎。他的兄弟提奧在巴黎頂尖的畫廊Coupil&Cie做藝術品交易的工作。梵高搬到了弟弟位於勒皮克大街54號三樓的公寓。這裏現在是一處私人住宅，只有一塊大理石板上寫着，“1886年到1888年，文森特·梵高來到這棟房子與弟弟提奧同住。”窗戶的格欄上掛着幾朵塑料向日葵。

The Rue Lepic arcs upward through Montmartre, passing the old windmills, and ultimately arrives at the Sacré-Coeur. On the way up, one can discover many prime landmarks of the nearly two years that van Gogh spent here, including the apartment of his friend Henri Toulouse-Lautrec and the oldest surviving Parisian vineyard, where van Gogh sometimes painted, now on Rue Saint Vincent.

勒皮克大街向北蜿蜒穿過蒙馬特，經過一些老風車，最終抵達聖心聖殿。在路上可以發現梵高在這度過的兩年留下的許多足跡，包括他的友人亨利·圖盧茲-羅特列克(Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec)的公寓，以及現在位於聖文森特街的最古老的巴黎葡萄園，梵高有時會在這裏畫畫。

The area, which was a hamlet outside Paris when van Gogh lived there, was critical to his progress as a painter, because it is where he met many of the Impressionists and other artists, including his friend Paul Gauguin, and imitated and explored various Parisian painting styles. There are no physical landmarks one can enter and explore in Montmartre to get a sense of how he lived, though there are museums, like the Musée d’Orsay, that now contain his work.

梵高在那裏居住時，這片地區是巴黎城外的一個小村子。這裏對於他作爲畫家的成長至關重要，因爲他遇見了許多印象主義和其他流派的畫家，包括好友保羅·高更，模仿並探索了巴黎的各種繪畫風格。在蒙馬特沒有一個有形的場所可以讓你走進去探索並感受梵高當時的生活，但是有些博物館收藏了他的作品，比如奧賽博物館。

Provence, France

法國普羅旺斯

Finding original artworks by van Gogh in most of the locations I visited would have been nearly impossible except for the special exhibitions designed for Van Gogh Year. The Fondation Van Gogh in Arles, an expansive exhibition space topped with an artwork of colored glass refracting Proven light through its roof, which opened in 2014, is a notable exception. Through an agreement with the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the foundation will have one original van Gogh painting on display year-round.

在我參觀的多數地方，想找到梵高的真跡幾乎都是不可能的，除非是在專門爲梵高年舉辦的展覽上。阿爾勒的梵高基金會(Fondation Van Gogh in Arles)是一個寬敞的展覽空間，頂棚是彩色玻璃的藝術設計，可以讓普羅旺斯的陽光折射進來。這處2014年開設的場所是一個例外。憑藉與阿姆斯特丹的梵高博物館的一份協議，基金會全年都會展示一幅梵高的真跡。

The final stages of van Gogh’s life are the best preserved, and they are also the most moving. After he cut off a part of his ear in Arles, he was admitted to the Arles hospital in Provence, where he painted the lush gardens that are still on display free to the public, as Espace Van Gogh. When he found that this was not sufficient treatment, his brother secured a spot for him at the asylum in St.-Rémy-de-Provence, about 30 minutes to the north. The drive there took me past the endless stretches of sunflowers now so closely associated with his art, and through the foothills of the range of small mountains at the base of the Alps, called the Alpilles, where he painted a series of “Wheat Fields” and his most famous “Starry Night.”

梵高人生最後幾個階段的故居保存最完好，也最打動人。他在阿爾勒切掉了一片耳朵之後，被送到了普羅旺斯的阿爾勒醫院，他在那裏畫下的鬱鬱蔥蔥的花園目前仍然免費展示給公衆，這家醫院目前叫做梵高醫院。當他發現這裏不能提供足夠的治療時，他的弟弟在北部30分鐘路程的普羅旺斯的聖雷米的精神病院爲他安排了一個牀位。開車前往這家精神病院的途中，我路過了一片片綿延不斷的向日葵，以及阿爾卑斯山腳下的山麓丘陵，叫做阿爾皮勒，梵高在這裏畫下了《麥田》系列和最著名的《星夜》。

The municipality of St. Rémy has done van Gogh tourists a service by creating a 19-point walking tour from the city center called Promenade de van Gogh, which can be complemented with an app called Van Gogh Natures that adds information about paintings he made in and around the asylum. I followed this self-guided tour up the hill, finding myself softly whispering: “Vincent, where are you? Are you here?” I realized, for the first time on my journey, that I had come in search of a ghost.

聖雷米市爲梵高的遊客提供了一個從市中心出發的包含19個景點的徒步旅行路線，叫做梵高人行道，遊客還可以下載Van Gogh Natures的應用程序，獲取關於他在精神病院和周圍創作的畫作的信息。我按圖索驥來到了山上，突然發現自己在輕聲低語：“文森特，你在哪呢？你在這兒嗎？”我在旅行中第一次意識到，我是在尋找一個靈魂。

The destination was the St. Paul de Mausole, a Romanesque former religious cloister that is part of a still-functioning mental hospital, and its sumptuous surrounding gardens. Depending on the season when you visit, you can find all the beautiful irises and lilies that inspired van Gogh’s paintings. And around the asylum are the twisted olive groves and the tall elegant cypresses that he captured with dense, emotional brushwork.

終點是莫索爾的聖保羅修道院(Saint Paul de Mausole)和它周圍華麗的花園。這裏曾經是一個羅曼式建築風格的修道院，目前屬於一所精神病院。在適當的季節，你可以看到爲梵高繪畫帶去靈感的美麗的鳶尾花和百合。精神病院周圍是扭曲的橄欖樹，以及他曾經用濃烈而情緒化的筆觸描繪過的高聳而優雅的絲柏樹。

Inside the cool cloister, through its medieval stone halls and up the shallow Romanesque stairs, is van Gogh’s preserved former room at the asylum. The steel bars on the windows are a jarring counterpoint to the easel positioned next to his wrought-iron bed, but what is more shocking is the room next door with two steel baths used for administering “hydrotherapy treatments” — only a hint of the therapeutic tortures he might have endured here. I wandered through the gardens for a moment of calm after seeing the hospital cell, my mind raging with thoughts of van Gogh’s suffering, and wondering how he managed to paint at all during the time he was at the asylum — let alone make 143 oil paintings and 100 drawings.

在修道院內，穿過中世紀的石頭大廳和淺淺的羅曼式的樓梯，就來到了梵高在精神病院住過的房間。窗戶上的鋼鐵柵欄和他鐵牀邊的畫架形成了強烈的反差，但更加令人震驚的是，隔壁的房間有兩個用於“水療護理”的鋼鐵浴盆——這隻會讓人聯想到他可能遭受的折磨。在參觀完了病房之後，我在花園中游蕩，尋找片刻寧靜，滿腦子都在想梵高的痛苦，我好奇他在精神病院裏是怎麼畫畫的——更不用說他還創作了143幅油畫和100幅素描。

Auvers-sur-Oise, France

法國瓦茲河畔歐韋

Van Gogh’s troubles did not end, though he finally left the St. Rémy hospital. He made his way back to northern France, to the town of Auvers-sur-Oise, about a 30-minute drive from Paris. It is where I visited the most poignant landmark, Van Gogh’s Room in the historic inn Auberge Ravoux. This tiny second-floor room (even smaller than his room at the asylum) remained empty for years after van Gogh died, suffering the curse of any French hotel room that was thought to be the scene of a suicide, and has been restored entirely through the efforts of a citizen, Dominique-Charles Janssens. This room, where van Gogh completed more than 80 paintings in just 70 days, with its only access to natural light a small ceiling window, is reminiscent of a coffin. Here is where van Gogh died of a fatal gunshot wound — probably self-inflicted — with his brother at his side.

雖然梵高最終離開了聖雷米精神病院，他的不幸沒有結束。他回到了法國北部的瓦茲河畔歐韋鎮，這裏距離巴黎有30分鐘車程。我在那裏參觀了最令人印象深刻的地標，梵高在歷史悠久的拉烏餐廳旅館(Auberge Ravoux)的房間。因爲被認爲是自殺的不祥之地，這個二樓的小房間（比他在精神病院的房間還小）在梵高去世之後空了很多年，通過一位名叫多米尼克 - 查爾斯詹森的公民的努力得到了完全的修復。在這個房間裏，梵高用了僅僅70天的時間完成了超過80幅畫作，屋子裏只能通過天花板上的小窗獲得一些自然光，感覺就像一口棺材。梵高在這裏死於致命槍傷——可能是自己開的槍——弟弟當時就在他身邊。

And in close walking distance is his grave, alongside his brother and confidante, Theo, who died six months later, at age 33.

他的墳墓就在附近，葬在他身邊的是弟弟兼好友提奧。提奧在梵高去世的六個月後去世，終年33歲。

What is more compelling, however, was a short walk away from his grave: the wheat fields down the dusty road where he painted his final series of canvases.

不過，從他的墳墓走不了多遠，有更爲值得一看的地方：沿着塵土飛揚的路走下去，是一片麥田，梵高在這裏創作了他最後系列的油畫作品。

By the end, the trip became something of a pilgrimage. I had gone to where van Gogh trekked alone with his easel on his back, gazing at the crooked olive groves, the obelisk-like cypresses and the swirling starry nights.

到了最後，這趟旅程已經有了幾分朝聖的味道。我來到了梵高揹着畫板獨自遠行，以及他凝視着歪橄欖樹、方尖碑樣的絲柏樹和令人眩暈的星夜的地方。

When I tramped down a dirt road along a river in Arles to the Pont de Langlois, which van Gogh depicted in four drawings, one watercolor and four oil paintings, I wondered: Why, when living in the center of a city like Arles, dotted with beautiful Roman ruins that filtered evening light in dramatic and wonderful ways, he was instead attracted, over and over again, to this slightly old-fashioned little drawbridge miles outside of town. And, having come all the way from Amsterdam, through so many van Gogh locations, I realized that I knew. Although van Gogh traveled far to discover the right effects, the right light and the right subjects for his paintings, all the while he was longing for a sense of home.

當我踏着阿爾勒一條河邊的泥土路，來到梵高在四幅素描、一幅水彩和四幅油畫中描繪過的朗格魯瓦吊橋，我在想：梵高住在阿爾勒這樣一座城市的市中心，周圍散落着美麗的羅曼式舊建築遺蹟，以奇妙和夢幻的方式照進夜晚的燈光，爲何他還一次次地執迷於城外幾裏地遠的這座有點過時的小吊橋？從阿姆斯特丹千里迢迢來到這裏，造訪了那麼多梵高的故居之後，我意識到，我知道答案。儘管梵高爲了尋找恰當的效果、光線和繪畫對象而遠走他鄉，但他一直都渴望家的感覺。

The more I traveled the more I became fascinated by this man van Gogh, who transmuted the reality of things he saw into images that are more real than real. The landmarks provided me with a starting point, from which I could travel out, and get a sense of the distances he traveled, both physically and mentally, to achieve the remarkable heights of artistic creation in the short span of a 10-year career.

走的地方越多，我對梵高就愈加着迷。他把眼中的世界幻化了比真實更加真實的畫面。這些地標是我的起點，我可以繼續遠行，去感受梵高在短短10年繪畫生涯中要達到如此驚人藝術創作高度，其肉體和心靈所走過的距離。

IF YOU GO

參觀建議

In the Netherlands

荷蘭

Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam (Museumplein 6; 31-20-570-5200; ) is the world’s largest trove of artworks by van Gogh. It is in the heart of Amsterdam, with a permanent exhibition of his work as well as temporary exhibitions that relate his works to other great artists.

阿姆斯特丹的梵高博物館（Museumplein 6; 31-20-570-5200；）是世界上最大的梵高作品收藏中心。它位於阿姆斯特丹的中心位置，長期展出他的作品，以及與其作品有關的當代展覽。

Vincentre / Van Gogh Village Nuenen(Vincentre Berg 29, Nuenen; 31-40-283-9615; for biking and walking tours, April through October), a small museum, is the beginning of an open-air walking tour that takes you through important locations for van Gogh’s painting in Nuenen, where he lived with his parents for two years, and fell in love with Margot Begemann. (Above, van Gogh’s father’s Reformed Church in Nuenen.)

文森特中心/紐南梵高村（Vincentre Berg 29, Nuenen; 31-40-283-9615; 4月到10月，自行車和徒步旅遊路線），一家小型博物館，你可以從這裏開始一次露天的徒步之旅，途徑梵高畫作中在紐南的重要景點。梵高在紐南與父母居住兩年，並在這裏愛上了瑪高特·貝格曼。

Van Gogh Starry Night Bike Path(), which lights up at night, begins at the Opwettense watermill in Nuenen and ends at the Collse Watermill in Eindhoven.

梵高星夜自行車道（），道路在夜晚會發光，起點是紐南的Opwettense 水車，終點是埃因霍溫的Collse水車。

Van Gogh House in Zundert(Markt 27, Zundert; 31-76-597-19 99; ), where van Gogh was born, was torn down in 1903, but the new house was built in 2008 with a permanent exhibition about his birthplace, Zundert.

津德爾特的梵高故居（Markt 27, Zundert; 31-76-597-19 99;），梵高出生的地方，1903年被拆除，2008年重建，長期舉辦關於梵高的展覽。

In Belgium

比利時

The Borinage: Maison Van Gogh (Rue du Pavillon 3, Cuesmes; ), just outside of Mons, in bucolic Cuesmes, is a little brick house and museum that tells the story of van Gogh’s time in this part of Belgium. (Above, inside Maison Van Gogh in Cuesmes, the Borinage.)

博里納日：梵高故居（Rue du Pavillon 3, Cuesmes;），一棟小磚房，如今是一座博物館，講述着梵高在比利時這個地區度過的時光。

Maison Van Gogh in Colfontaine(Rue Wilson 221, formerly rue du Petit-Wasmes, Colfontaine; ), also known as Maison Denis, the newly renovated house van Gogh rented when he arrived in Mons to be an evangelist, is near the Marcasse Mine.

科爾方丹的梵高故居（Rue Wilson 221, formerly rue du Petit-Wasmes, Colfontaine; ），也被稱作丹尼斯的房子，這是梵高抵達蒙斯擔任福音傳道者時租住的房子，目前已經被翻修，位於馬卡斯煤礦附近。

BAM/Musée des Beaux-Arts in Mons(Rue Neuve, 8, Mons; 32-65-39-5939; ) had an exhibition dedicated to van Gogh in the Borinage in 2015, but that show is now over. But exhibitions are often linked to the painter, who had a tremendous influence in Mons.

蒙斯美術館(Rue Neuve, 8, Mons; 32-65-39-5939; )2015年舉辦了一個關於梵高在博里納日的展覽，目前已經結束。但這裏的展覽經常與梵高有關，梵高對蒙斯產生了深遠的影響。

In France

法國

Fondation Vincent Van Gogh in Arles(35 rue du Dr. Fanton; Arles; ), in the center of the old city of Arles, is a great place to begin a tour of van Gogh locations throughout Arles. Exhibitions are connected to van Gogh’s work; and at least one original van Gogh painting is on display in the museum all year round.

阿爾勒的文森特·梵高基金會（35 rue du Dr. Fanton; Arles; ），位於阿爾勒老城的中心，從這裏開始在阿爾勒尋訪梵高的足跡再合適不過了。這裏的展覽都與梵高的作品有關，全年至少有一幅梵高的真跡在博物館展出。

St. Paul de Mausole Monastery(Chemin St. Paul, 13210 St.-Rémy-de-Provence; 33-4-90-92-77-00) is the “asylum” where van Gogh received treatment in St.-Rémy-de-Provence, and where you can visit his former room and see the lush gardens and landscapes he painted during his time there. Different flowers are in bloom throughout the year; check for seasons for irises, almond blossoms and sunflowers.

莫索爾的聖保羅修道院 (Chemin St. Paul, 13210 St.-Rémy-de-Provence; 33-4-90-92-77-00)是梵高在普羅旺斯的聖雷米接受治療的“精神病院”，你可以在這裏參觀他當時的病房，看到他在此治療期間畫過的茂盛的花園和風景。全年都有不同的花兒綻放；在適當的季節可以看到鳶尾花、杏花和向日葵。

Maison de Van Gogh(Place de la Mairie, Auvers-sur-Oise; 33-1-30-36-60-60), the restaurant and inn Auberge Ravoux, the last place where van Gogh lived, and where he died. You can see the tiny room he inhabited, and eat a classic French meal at the lovely restaurant downstairs.

梵高故居（Place de la Mairie, Auvers-sur-Oise; 33-1-30-36-60-60），拉烏餐廳旅館，梵高居住過的最後一個地方，他也在這裏走完了人生。你可以看見他居住的小房間，在樓下的迷人的餐廳享受一頓傳統的法餐。